Our design process is really one of discovery. We speak with you about what sort of custom furniture you need, what you need it to do, and what you want it to look like. If you know exactly what you want your table to look like, we’ll inform you about the different ways to achieve that effect and offer our expertise. If, as is often the case, you’re still unsure of exactly what the table wants to be, we’ll guide you through the process, and ask the important questions to make sure that the piece you get is exactly the one you need.
One of the most important questions is, quite simply, how big should the table be. The answer depends on a whole host of factors, including how many people you want the table to seat, whether it will have extensions, and how big the room is. It’s vital to bear in mind things like clearances between the table and walls, and how traffic flows through the room. We offer comprehensive CAD modeling to perform a seating and chair-tucking analysis, so you know exactly how the table will operate in the room. If you’re still unsure, we also do site visits and make templates, so that you can see a full-size mockup of the table in the space at table height. Especially in situations where a table fits into a tricky space, this can be a hugely valuable undertaking.
When it comes to the aesthetic design of the piece, we also offer iterative design renderings that can start out with hand sketches and include full CAD renderings. These images allow you to see what the full table, including base, will look like from a number of angles. It can be difficult to visualize a full table you’ve never seen before in your mind’s eye, and CAD takes the guesswork out of the equation.
Most of our projects also include a visit to our showroom, where you can see a wide array of the woods we work with, the stains and tints we offer, and the finishes we use. Our showroom has sample table tops and bases, at near-full scale, so you can get a real sense of the difference between the different species of wood and the different styles of construction. A showroom meeting is often where a table really begins to take shape.
Also in the “taking out the guesswork” category, we offer comprehensive sampling of materials, color manipulations, and finishes. Not sure which type of wood will work best for your custom dining table, or exactly which stain will look right in the room? We can mail you samples of different woods, different stains on those woods, and the two finishes we use. Having these chunks of wood in your hands in your home can go a long way towards helping you imagine the table and make decisions. A custom table is really just a number of decisions made physical, and being able to compare some of the choices in the real world helps simplify things.
